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GUANO. 



A T U E A T 1 8 E 



ON TBI 



HISTORY, ECONOMY AS A MANURE, 

AND 

MODES OF APPLYING 

PERUVIAN GUANO, 

IN THE CULTURE OF THE VARIOUS CROPS 
OF THE FARM AND THE GARDEN. 



** Guano, though no »aint, works many niirrclr><.'' 

Perwtnan Proverb. 



BOSTON: 
rrBLISHED RY C. L. HARTLEn', 

A^ent of th»' Pwn\n8n fiovenimont. 



IC llRnAII STItr.KT. 

1 X i;ii . 



GUANO. 



A T 11 1; A r 1 s E 



ON Tin: 



111ST01!Y, ECONOMY AS A MANUKE, 



AND 



modEkS of applying 
PERUVIAN GUANO, 

IN Tin: CTLTURi-: of Tin: VAiuors ciioi'S 

OF TIIK FAini AND I'lli: C AIM) FN. 



** Uiiuno, thoiigl) no saint, works many iniracU's.'' 

JWiii'ian Proverb. 



\ 



HOST () N : 
Pl'BLISIIKI) UV C. I.. r.AUTT.FTT, 

Ageut of tlio Ptnivian GovemiueDl, 
10 Rroad Strekt, 

1 H i: II . 



> 



•4 , 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

C . L . B A R T L E T T , 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



Steam Press of C. C. P. Moody. 



Xj' 



GUANO. 



Guano has been severely tested by extended and repeated 
-xperiments, and the result has been to establish its reputation, 
not only as one of the most powerful, liut as one of the most 
economical manures. When properly applied, it has seldom or 
never failed to produce the most satisfactory crops, and if in- 
stances of failure have occurred, they may be traced directly, 
cither to some other than Peruvian guano, or to a want of 
proper knowledge of its properties, or to a lack of judgment in 
the application. 

It is the object of this Treatise to gi\e a few practical sug- 
gestions on the use of guano, and the results of actual trials 
under a great variety of circumstances and upon a great variety 
of crops and soils. 

Before entering upon more practical points, however, it will 
not be out of place to say a few words of the origin and history 
of this article. 

It is but little more than twenty years since the first cargo of 
guano left the coast of Peru to enter the ports of Great Britain 
as an article of commerce. The first consignment was made to 
a mercantile firm of Liverpool, Messrs. Myers <fc Co. in 18J35, 
but guano, being still unknown, excited little attention till five 
years later when twenty casks were again landed in England, 
and it was soon found to be the most valuable manure in exis- 
tence. So great was the confidence immediati.'ly inspired in its 
value as a means of increasing the products and renovating the 
soil of the country, that the very next year, 1841, seven vessels 
were employed to convey IT-* "» tons from tln' Chincha Islands to 
England, and the number increased in 1842 to 41 British and 
•' foreign vessels, and to l:>004 tons. 

Before the close of 1844, no less than 20000 tons were im- 
ported into that country from the coast of Peru, to say nothing 
of the many thousand tons which came from the Ichaboe and 



4 STATISTICS OF GUANO. 

other guaiio islands at that time discovered. In 1855 no less 
than 210,000 tons were sold in England, being an increase of 
twenty per cent, on the consumption of 1854. wliich was at least 
twenty per cent, over tliat of l&5o. And what vvas most re- 
markable is the fact that this enormous increase of its con- 
sumption took place in the face of a rise in the price from 
forty-five, to sixty-five and seventy dollars per ton. 

From 1841, the commencement of the extraction of guano 
to any extent from the Chincha Islands, to the end of 1856, 
the quantity removed from these islands amounted to the enor- 
mous figure of 1,967,079 tons, of which 1,626,405 tons had been 
actually sold for use, 23,885 tons had been damaged, and 316,789 
tons were still in the market. The aggregate amount of sales 
in this time was $100,268,519 75. During the year 1857 no less 
than 472,965 tons were extracted, and during the first half of 
1858, ending June 30th, 169,580 tons. 

From the commencement of 1851, to the end of 1858, there 
were imported into the United States and used, no less than 
673,412 tons. These statistics arc gathered mainly from the 
most reliable source, no less than the official report of the 
Peruvian government itself. 

According to the estimate of Liebig, one of the most cele- 
brated of living chemists, verified by actual experiment, 1 cwt. 
of good Peruvian guano assumes, with piojier application, the 
form of at least 8 cwt. of wheat. If this estimaie is correct, 
what a vast amount of himian food, and a vast increase of pop- 
idation the importations of guano represent ! 

Humboldt is commonly said to have Ijcen the first to make 
known to Europe in 1804, the existence of vast deposits of the 
excrements of fish-eating sea fovds on the islands of the Pacific, 
though the existence and ])ropertics of these excrements were 
fully described in one of the many works of Garcilasso de la 
Yega, published in Lisbon in 1609. 

The inhabitants of Peru and Chili had used them under the 
name of huano, changed by the Spaniards to g-iiano, for many 
centuries, and so much were they prized during the reign of 
the Incas, that the killing of sea fowl during the breeding season 
was punished by death. The deposits of these Inrds, therefore, 



GCANO OF THE CIllNCHA ISLANDS. 5 

must have been continued comparatively undisturbed for many 
ages, since tht'y are found in some places on the islands to the 
depth of from 50 or ♦)() to 200 feet, while, according to Hum- 
boldt, during a period of ^]00 years, a layer of less tlian half 
an inch in thickness had hoi.Mi added. 

The best Peruvian guano is found on the Chincha Islands 
lying almut tm miles offthc coast of Peru. These islands are 
three in numl)cr, about half a mile apart, in a line from north 
to soufli, each being al)out five or six miles in circumference. 
They are formed of jwrphyritic or granitic rock thrown up at 
an early period by volcanic action, and are covered with guano 
in horizontal layers or strata of from throe to eight or ten 
ijiches in thickness, the dej»th varying greatly in different parts 
from three or four feet to two or three hundred. Tliesc layers 
vary in color from white and dark gray to red or brownish bufi'. 
The white is newly deposited and continues to increase by 
gradual accrciions from vast llocks of cormorants, cranes, flam- 
ingoes, gulls, gannets and other sea fowl. The gray is inter- 
mediate, lying below the white, and the red has been longest 
deposited anil deepest bui'iL-d. The white and gray pass by agtj 
into the red. 

Guano is found on otlu-r islands on the Pacific coast of South 
America, between the l^Uh and 21st parallels of S. latitude, but 
none arc more favorably situated than the Chinchas, since on 
account of the lofty range of mountains along the coast, rain 
very rarely falls on the islands to wash and waste away the 
innncnse deposits Beyond the limits named, rain more frc- 
(picntly falls and the guano, if any were found, woiild have lost 
much of its value. On the Chincha Islands, which contain 
un(iuestiomibly the best quality of gniano icliirh has ever yet 
been discovered, the sujiply is perhaps inexhaustible, since it is 
said that the removal of two or thrive hundred thousan<l tons 
from l)eds whicn arc now worked, has produced no very per- 
ceptible diminution. It is so compact and solid on account of 
its great depth and the slow and gradual dej)ositions, that it is 
often necessary to ^c^ort to blasting. More or less hard lumps 
of various sizes are found intermixed with the finer qualities of 
guano a« found in the market. They are only the unbroken 



6 CHEAPEST FORM OF AMMONIA. 

masses of the original deposit, and are identical in composition 
with the finer or more pulverized portions. Both the finer and 
the coarser particles are filled with the most beautiful infusoria, 
many of them splendidly colored like the rainbow, and one 
of the best methods of testing the genuineness of the article 
is by the microscope. 

Guano taken from the Chincha Islands is found to be pretty 
uniform in its character and composition, far more so than 
was at first supposed from the analyses of specimens first 
sent to Europe, some of which were probably taken from the 
main land where the deposits are more or less mi'xed in or 
covered by drift sand. The more recent analyses of pure Peru- 
vian guano present less variations. 

The niceties of an analysis are of little importance or interest 
to the practical farmer, as they do not affect, in any appreciable 
way, the actual commercial or manurial value of genuine Peru- 
vian guano. But it may be stated that its real value depends 
largely upon the amount of ammonia whicli it contains, and to 
nearly as great an extent, also, on the quantity of the phosphates 
of lime and magnesia, which exercise a very important influence 
on vegetation. In the analyses of thirty-two samples of Peruvian 
guano recently made by Prof. Way, the highest percentage of 
ammonia was 18.94 the lowest 15.98, the average 17.46, while 
the average quantity of earthy phosphates was 24.12 per cent. 
In Peruvian guano at the present market prices the farmer 
buys ammonia at a less cost than it is possible to get it in any 
other form, and this is the great secret of the vast superiority of 
the Peruvian over any other kind of guano, and of the great 
popularity and extensive and increasing consumption of that 
article. 

Without going into the details of an elaborate analysis, there- 
fore, we propose to give first the testimony of scientific men in 
regard to the value of guano as a manure ; and then to give the 
testimony of practical men and the results of many careful and 
reliable trials by experienced farmers and gardeners, and, 
thirdly, to state what, in our opinion, is the best mode of treat- 
ment and api>lication to secure the largest and most profitable 
results. First then, 



ITS RrCHNE-S IX PHOSDIATFfl. 7 

THE TESTIMONY OF SCIENCE. 

Dr. Urc, in an elaborate article on the analysis of guano pub- 
lished in the Journal of the Royal Aj^ricultural Soojoty of 
Enirland, says: "The general conclusion that may !)•• lairly 
deduced from the whole evidence is thdi g-ood gvano xrilt, under 
judicious (ippliration, increase the crops of t^ rain, turuips. pota- 
toes and i^rass by about oM per cent.; and wif/i its present price 
per ton, at a cost considerably under the averaf^e cost of all other 
manures, whether farm yard dun<r and composts, or artiliejal 
comjiounds." Dr. Von Martins, of Munich, a distinguished agri- 
cultural chemist, in an address to the agricultural society of 
Bavaria, says : "Among animal manures it clearly claims the 
first place. It is unconnnonly rich in ammoniacal salts which 
act very favorably on vegetation. // is Jive tim^s better than 
night soil and also veri/ superior to the French poudrette^ The 
same chemist estimates that the manuring power of genuine 
guano is lour times greater than that of pigeon's dung, which 
estimate is undoubtedly a near approximation to the truth. Dr. 
Ure, in the article already alluded to, asserts that genuine Peru- 
vian giianos. like some that he had minutely analyzed, surpass 
very far all other species of manure, whether natural or arti- 
ficial, in the quantity oi potential ammonia, and, therefore, in the 
permanency of their action upon the roots of plants, while in 
consequence of the ample store of actual annnonia which they 
contain ready formed, they are qualified to give immediate 
vigor to vegetation. 

A scientilic writer in the Rural Cyclopedia, remarks that 
guano is, weight for weight, oO per cent, richer in phosphate of 
lime than even crushed bones ; and in the same projxtrtion 
must it act with pernjanently fertilizing power uj)on the soil. 
" This fact," remarks Prof. Johnston, •' is of great practical 
im}tortance. Nitrite of soda, so much used of late, aiul so 
deserving of more extensive trial, may l)0 washed out of the 
soil, where the earthy part of the guano would remain : it may 
cease to exert a marked influence after a second crop, where it 
is scarcely |)ossible that the phosphates of the guano shotild 
cea.se to act : and it may fail to liring to maturity croj)s of corn 
or to fill the ripened e:ir. when the guano would siipply to tli<' 



8 OPINIONS OP SCIENTIFIC MEN. 

grain, among other substances the earthy phosphates also, which 
the seed contains as a necessary constituent." 

Prof. S. W. Johnson, of the Yale Analytical Laboratory, says: 
'■'■a good guano is the 7nost valuable of fertilizers and properly 
commands a high price,'" while in a little Treatise on Manures, 
just published, he expresses himself as follows : "T/^e manner 
in lohich the importation and sale of this standard fertilizer (^Pe- 
ruvian guano^ has been hitherto conducted, is such as to afford 
a sufficient guaranty of its genuineness. It maintains its uni- 
formity and excellence of composition to a remarkable degree. 
The soluble phosphoric acid it should be remembered, is equal in 
quantity to the average amount of this ingredient in our com- 
mercial super-phosphates, and is accompanied with two to three 
per cent, of potash, which, though of trifling commercial value 
by the side of ammonia, is nevertheless of great manurial worth 
on the light soils where guano is most often applied." 

The editors of the Albany Cultivator and Country Gentle- 
man in reply to the inquiry as to the best top dressing for wheat 
and rye, state their opinion in the follovt^ing emphatic and un- 
equivocal language : "Of all the concentrated fertilizers we are 
acquainted with, — and we have used the nitrate of soda and 
potash, muriate, sulphate and carbonate of ammonia, bone dust, 
super-phosphate, Liebig's Patent wheat manure, soot, rape dust, 
woolen rags, and a variety of mineral manures, — we knoio of 
none, at present in the market, so cheap and so good as a top 
dressing for wheat and rye as Peruvian guano. Sulphate of 
ammonia is a splendid manure for wheat, but at present prices.^ 
Peruvian guano, is a cheaper source of fertilizing elements."^ 

Dr. Dana, author of the first and best muck manual ever 
published in this country, says : " The bone earth of guano 
gives it a permanent effect. No substance yields more sub- 
stances for the wants of plants, in all stages of their growth, 
than guano." 

Sucli an array of accumulative testimony, from men known 
to be perfectly disinterested, and distinguished for higli scien- 
tific attainments, both in Europe and in this country, is suf- 
ficient on this point, though similar authorities might be 
multiplied indefinitely. No scientific man, indeed, has ever 



TESTIMONY OP PRACTICE. 9 

expressed an opinion against the extraordinary and unequalled 
fertilizing properties of Peruvian guano. 

THE TESTIMONY OF PRACTICE. 

The Rev. J. M. Merrick, of Walpole, Ms., in a report as chairman 
of the committee on fartns of the Norfolk Co. Agricultural Soci- 
ety, gives the language of a practical farmer, \\ ho says : " My 
experiment ^vith guano on gratis land for this, the fourth year 
since its application, has yielded by careful weight just twice as 
much as the piece adjoining, which had noni'." This, says Mr. 
Merrick, is the testimony of another intelligent farmer, who in- 
forms us that the good effects of guano are distinctly visible af- 
ter five years. 

C. C. Scwall, of Medfield, Mass., a successful practical farmer 
says : " Guano, at the rate of three hundred pounds per acre, 
mixed with sand, was spread and thoroughly incorporated with 
the soil by tho harrow. Then grass seed was sown, and a light 
horse-harrow was afterwards passed over the ground. The re- 
sult of this experiment was so successful that I have since re- 
peated the operation several times, under like conditions, and 
with like good returns, and I am now convinced that it is much 
better for any one to follow the same, or a similar course, than 
to cart manure from his barn, to any considerable distance and 
attempt to cultivate any land suitable for grass." 

David Choato, of Essex, Mass., in speaking, as chairman of 
the committee on farms of the Essex Co. Agricultural Society, 
of the great and well known success of Mr. Brown, a prominent 
farmer of Marblehead, says : " Wherever Mr. B. has used gua- 
no upon his gi-ass land, as a top-dressing, he thinks every 200 
pounds has given him an extra ton of liay. Early in June last, 
a piece of grass put on a rusty appearance and seemed dying. 
About tlic middle of June he sowed about 200 lbs. of guano to 
the aero upon it. Tho weather was rainy, and in alsout one 
week he thinks the grass was doubled, being changed in color 
from yellow to a lively green." 

Mr. Choate in tho same report, alluding to the experiments 
of another practical farmer of Essex Co., says they were tried 



10 RESULTS OF ACTUAL TRIALS. 

with guano and super-phosphate as a top-dressing for grass. It 
was upon a peat meadow, which had been in grass fifteen or 
twenty years without any dressing. He applied guano at the 
rate of 400 lbs. the acre, to a strip eight rods long, and one rod 
and five links wide. 

The produce of hay was 253 pounds ; on a strip of the same 
size by its side, (imdressed) 56 pounds. With a super-phos- 
phate dressing on a strip eight rods long by one wide, the yield 
was 138 lbs. of hay, while the same number of rods along-side, 
(undressed) yielded 60 lbs. 

To be equal to the guano, the super-phosphate should have 
produced 210 lbs., instead of 138. 

Mr. Charles Breck, of Milton, Mass., taking a worn out piece 
of land which had been mown and closely fed off for fourteen 
years, says : "In the spring of 1854, 1 staked off two square rods, 
which to appearance, were as nearly equal as they could be, and 
lying side by side. On one rod I put twelve cents worth of guano 
mixed with one and a half pecks of sand from the road side. 
On the other rod, nothing was put. In July the grass was 
mown, well dried and carefully weighed. On the rod which 
had no manure, there were six pounds of hay, — on the rod on 
which the guano was used, there were twenty-six pounds of hay. 
"In 1855, on the first rod there were only three pounds of hay, 
and on the rod with guano, there were nine pounds. In 1856 I 
mowed and dried the grass carefully. On the first rod I had 
three pounds of hay, and on the second nine pounds, making in 
the three years, a gain of thirty-two pounds, equal to 5120 lbs, 
to the acre, by the use of guano that would have cost nineteen 
dollars and twenty cents, with a fair prospect of its continuing 
sometime longer, besides improving the quality of the hay very 
much." 

Thus the testimony is conclusive that the effects of guano are 
lasting beyond the first and second years, most farmers who have 
used it carefully agreeing that these effects are distinctly visible 
for five or six years. The composition of genuine Peruvian gu- 
ano is such, containing a large amount of phosphate of lime, 
larger in proportion even than bone dust, that it must of neces- 
sity produce effects which are lasting in the soil. 



LASTING EFFECre OF GOANO. 11 

This is an important practical point and one in which the 
farmer is directly interested. The question is frequently asked 
whether guano, at the present prices, is profitably used on our 
soils, and whether the benefit to bo expected from it, is not en- 
tirely exhausted by the first crop ? It should be borne in mind 
ill considerinti; this last question, that whether its effects are du- 
rable or not, if its first results arc satisfactory and pay a good 
interest, that is pay for the original cost of guano and working 
the crop, together with as fair a return as any other manure, thcro 
can be no loss on the investment. The capital is rapidly turn- 
ed over, principal and interest, and ready for a new invest- 
ment, thus making quick and sure returns, profitable enough 
even where the efiocts are not found to be lasting. 

But to test the point in the most careful maimer, a farmer in 
Norfolk Co., Mass., as stated in the first Annual Report of the 
Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, took a piece of land 
which for several years had yielded only a small return for 
mowing, and carefully turned it up with a large plow about the 
last week of August, stirring the soil eight inches deep, rolling 
it and levelling it off. lie then used Peruvian guano thorough- 
ly mixed with sand, in order to spread it more evenly, by hand, 
at the rate of three hundred pounds per acre. This was brush- 
ed over with a bush-harrow. The soil varied in different parts 
of the field, from alight gravelly, to a deep moist loam. The 
seed germinated quickly and covered the surfaco before winter 
with a good body of grass, which was not much injured by frost 
except in a few low spots. In spring the grass grew rapidly, 
vigorously, and evenly. The first yield of hay was quite two 
tons to the acre ; the year following still larger, and for four 
succeeding years it has been, at no time, less than a ton and a 
half to the acre, with no other manure during the time than two 
light dressings of compost. 

The fiehl w:is nearly a quarter of a mile distant from the 
farmer's barn, and ho believes it would have cost more time, la- 
bor and money to have drawn and applied manure from his 
barn, for the first outlay, than the whole quantity of guano and 
and the subsequent dressings of compost A similar trial was 
made the next year on an adjoining piece of land and with equal- 



12 COMPARATIVE RESULTS. 

ly satisfactory results, and the effect of the guano is still seen 
after four years of cropping in the earlier greenness and growth 
of the grass, both before and after mowing as compared with 
land of a similar character, adjoining, laid down a year later, 
and which had received the usual tillage for two years and two 
heavy dressings of barn yard manure. 

Equally beneficial results have followed, says the same farm- 
er, from the use of guano on wheat and other small grains, on 
corn fodder, beans, pease, cabbages, squash and other vines, 
young fruit trees, currant and other bushes. His experience 
and observation lead him therefore, to venture the opinion that 
our farms would be, in all respects benefited, and the expense 
of cultivation lessened by a judicious and liberal use of guano, 
wherever barn manure, though it ivere a gift, must be carted 
more than half a mile. 

Maj. S. B. Phinney, of Barnstable, Mass., Secretary of the 
Barnstable County Agricultural Society, says : " By the use of 
guano on an acre of land plowed and sown to grass, I have 
found beneficial results. Where the best of compost manure 
had been applied side by side (three tons to the acre) with gua- 
no, it was found that the crop where the guano was spread was 
nearly a quarter larger." 

J. E. Porter, of Hadley, Mass., says : "I came to the conclu- 
sion that if I had treated my poor starved land more liberally 
with guano, I should have been amply repaid at harvest time. 
I have since practised on this plan and have had my reward." 

Lucius Clapp, of Stoughton, Mass., in planting an acre of corn, 
says: " To test its value four rows were planted with guano. 
These were harvested separately and compared with four rows 
adjoining. The result was at the rate often bushels to the acre 
in favor of guano, the corn being also sounder." 

He also says : " I have also tried an experiment on grass 
land, 150 lbs. being sown on half an acre of low moist land. 
The guano was sown at the commencement of a heavy rain, about 
the 20th of April. The result was highly satisfactory ; the crop 
being double of last year, while all around was lighter." 

The editor of the American Parmer, Baltimore, Md., in the 
number for July, 1859, says : " We had the opportunity re- 



CONCENTRATION OP FERTILIZING FXEiTENTS. 13 

cently of remarking the effect 'of Peruvian p:iiano as a top dres- 
sing during three successive years. It was applied two years 
ago to a hill sido when in wheat, and the effect in that crop 
was very apparent. This spring, two years after, it is equally 
apparent in the heavy growth of orchard grass. On another 
piece of land the Timothy has entirely run out except upon a 
strip which, owing to its heing thinner ilian the rest, was top- 
dressed with Peruvian guano. On this the Timothy is still vig- 
orous and well set." 

Mr. Alfred Montague, of Sunderland, Mass., wishing to test 
the comparative value of guano and the first quality of hog ma- 
nure on a cold soil to be planted with corn, plowed and furrow- 
ed the piece, and on half of it put hog manure in the furrow at 
the rate of twelve loads to the acre. On the other half he put 
150 lbs. of guano to the acre. The cost of the manure ai>plied 
to the land was fifteen dollars, and of the guano, five dollars, 
making a difference of ten dollars per acre. " As near as I can 
judge," says he, " at the present time, there are ten bushels 
more of corn on the half that was guanoed, than on the other 
half" 

A thousand other similar statements of practical farmers in 
various parts of the country might be given did space permit. 
Men began by using a bag, or a few hundred pounds, carefully 
experimenting perhaps, and if they used ordinary good judg- 
ment in applying it, with decided success, till they were satis- 
fied that it was cheaper and more economical than any other kind 
of manure, easily transported to distant parts of the farm, sav- 
ing an enormous amount of labor of teams and men. 

At first one appears to be unable to comprehend how only 
two or three hundred pounds of guano can maintain land in as 
good order and produce as luxuriant crops as the six or eight 
cords of harn-yard manure, which he has bi'on accustomed to 
use. We are apt to forget that everything thatentei's the [>lant 
and goes to nourish and sustain its growth, must first be dissolv- 
ed, and that the actual essential fertilizing elements of six 
cords of stable manure, might be compressed into an exceeding- 
ly small compass. Compressed into one single cord, instead of 
six, the cost of handling and carting would be proportionably 



14 CONSTITUENTS OF FARM-YARD MANURES. 

less. Now the straw, the hay, the stalks, the leaves, the weeds, 
the loam, &c. &c., which compose the great bulk of our stable 
or barn-yard manure, are comparatively inert as fertilizers. A 
long time is required for them to develop, by fermentation and 
decay, the slight fertilizing properties which they possess. They 
serve a good purpose, it is true, in the mixture with the soHd 
and liquid excrements of animals, since they absorb and retain 
the ammonia which is developed from the decay and fermenta- 
tion of these excrements, but they largely increase the expense 
of the use and application of these manures. 

It is well known, that on an average, all but four hundred 
pounds out of a ton of ordinary barn-yard manures which are 
loaded and handled and composted and spread, or otherwise 
handled over, often, too, in the midst of other pressing spring 
work, is nothing but common water, such as we are deluged 
with every spring, and the actual fertilizing elements found in 
a ton of such manures, would of course be found to weigh a good 
deal less than 400 lbs. This must be a consoling reflection to 
those who buy the coarse strawy stable manures of the cities or 
elsewhere, and team them, often, for several miles at great cost 
of time and labor, to say nothing of wear and tear of vehicles 
and cattle. 

Again it should be borne in mind that a very large amount 
of the substances which are found in farm yard manure are pre- 
cisely identical with those which are found in the greatest 
abundance in the soil, or which are in themselves very cheap 
and easily procurable, such as lime, magnesia, silica or sand, 
oxide of iron, alumina, &c. It could not be expected, therefore, 
that when these substances, which form the great bulk of the 
actual constituents of good farm yard manure, are added to the 
soil, they would produce any very striking effect upon it. There 
are other constituents, however, found in farm yard manure 
which do produce very striking effects ; one of these is nitrogen, 
but unfortunately this most valuable substance is found only in 
' very small quantities even in the best of such manures. When 
these manures are applied to the cereal crops, it is chiefly the 
nitrogen which produces the efiect, notwithstanding it exists in 
small quantities. Phosphate of lime is also found in farm yard 



GUANO AN AUXILIARY MANURE. 16 

manures and this is the special substance which root crops require 
in great abundance ; but this unfortunately, though one of the 
most important fertilizing materials is fourid only in small quan- 
tities in yard manures. These two constituents, together with the 
less valuable alkalies, potash and soda, also found in farm yard 
manures, are largely required by all plants. Now the chief 
value of guano depends on the fact that it concentrates these 
very substances, and that these substances are found only in 
small quantities in the soil ; all farm products require them 
in larger quantities, all soils contain them in smaller quantities, 
than any other substances which are ever found in farm yard 
manures. 

Can it be inferred from this that farm yard manures are vai- 
ueless in the soil ? By no means. These manures are perfoc, 
and universal manures so far as they go. They serve a most im 
portant purpose and are indispensable. Concentrated manures 
serve a dill'erent and special purpose. Farmyard manures pro- 
duce a mechanical as well as a chemical efTect on the soil. They 
lighten it and admit the air. These mechanical effects are pro- 
duced by no concentrated manure, and consequently no such 
manure can be a complete substitute for the coarser farm yard 
manures. It is as a direct food for i)lants, which farm manures 
contain in small quantities and which good guano contains in 
80 large quantities, which makes it so valuable, and it is unreas- 
onable to expect it to produce the same mechanical effect on the 
soil which coarser manures produce, llence it is as an ad- 
dition or an auxiliary to other manures that it lias an immense 
value on all soils and for all crops, while on soils whose physical 
texture does not require the modification of coarse manures, it 
is the mo't perfect and complete substitute for them, that has 
ever yet been found, or ever yet been manufactured. 

And so experience accords with this view of the comparative 
value and elVfct of coarse and concentrated manures, for the 
most careful experiments made in the Duchy of Cleves in Prus- 
sia have ])rove(l, — and the general estimate tlierc accords with it — 
that 100 lbs. of guano is equal to five tons of dung ; and a 
similar estimate in put upon iti)y the farmers of Scotland. And 
it is further estimated that the increased nnJritive value of the 



16 GUANO ON GRASS LANDS. 

crops grown with guano as compared with those grown on poor 
soils is at least 20 per cent. 

This important point, too often overlooked by our farmers, is 
alluded to as agreeing precisely with the experience of several 
to whom we have referred in the preceding pages. 

Soils whose physical texture requires to be modified by the 
application of coarse stable manures, will generally be more 
permanently improved by thorough draining at the outset ; but 
if these manures are to be used, their value and effect may be 
very largely increased by the addition to them of good guano, 
as we shall see when we come to speak of the importance of a 
mixture of manures and the proper and most economical modes 
of applying guano. 

GUANO ON SPECIAL CROPS. 

Grass Lands. The grass and hay crop of the country being 
paramount to all others, let us see the economy of manures 
upon that. Guano is generally applied to grass as a top dress- 
ing, and when it is done judiciously in point of time and quan- 
tity, it has very rarely failed of producing results in the highest 
degree satisfactory, giving quick and large returns for the 
outlay. 

To test this point the Hon. Henry W. Cushman of Bernards- 
ton, Mass., staked off fifty square rods from the centre of a 
piece of mowing of some three or four acres on a piece of old 
land not very productive, and which had not been manured 
for three or four years. "On the 16th of May," he says, "a 
damp day, I sowed on this piece at the rate of 215 lbs. of Peru- 
vian guano to the acre — 1 1-3 lbs. to the square rod. The result 
was a very visible and immediate effect on the growth of the 
grass — so much so that the boundaries of the piece on which 
guano was sown could be seen at the distance of forty rods or 
more. The quantity of grass produced, so near as I could judge 
without weighing, was about double that on the adjoining land, 
or at least a gain of seventy-five per cent. 

" The advantage of using guano as above may thus be 
stated," says Gov. Cushman : " Quantity of hay on land on 



PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. 17 

which guano was not used, say one ton per acre. Increase by 
the use of guano, three fourths ton per acre. Value of three 
fourths ton of hay, less expense of cutting, say $8.00; cost of 
guano, 215 lbs. at $65 per ton, $7, making an actual profit 
of one eighth, liesides the increased quality of hay on the same 
land. *•' I also measured off thirty square rods from another 
part of the same lot and applied at the rate of 100 lbs. of 
guano to the acre — or one pound to the square rod. The 
result was similar to the foregoing, with this difference, that the 
quantity of grass was proportionally less. It is ray opinion 
that 250 lbs. of guano to the acre is the minimum quantity that 
should be applied to produce the most profit." 

3Ir. "NVilliam Oregg, ot Freeport, Me., says: " Guano has been 
applied to grass lands in this town, both last year and this, on 
almost every variety of soil with uniform success, in every case 
increasing the crops. In one instance, one hundred and fifty 
pounds of guano, spread on three fourths of an acre, — soil a 
clayey loam, quadrttptcd the crop of ^rass."" 

A Norfolk county farmer as reported in the Second Annual 
Report of tlic Secretary of the Mass. State Board of Agriculture, 
says : " When judiciomhj applied, g^iano has resulted welly es- 
pecially on vHnci)i^ lands doubling- the growth.'' An experienced 
farmer in Middlesex county in the same State got double the crop 
of grass from land where guano was applied the autumn previous. 

Mr. P. L. Osborn, of Danvers, Mass., applied 25 lbs of Peru- 
vian guano at the rate of :240 lbs per acre late in April to ten 
square rods of high, flat, moist meadow of fair soil, which had 
been mown for a dozen years without any manure, or any cul- 
tivation whatever. When the crop was fairly grown ho cut 
from the ten rods 253 lbs of good hay. From an adjoining lot 
of the same size and soil, where no guano was applied, he cut 
only 50 lbs, showing an increase of more than four hundred per 
rent, produced I'V the application of guano. 

Similar instances of careftil and accurate experiment are in- 
numerable, and we repeat hero what we have already said, that 
wherever the application of a su[/icicnl quantity of Peruvian guanu 
to grass land has failed, it has been owing to a want of proper 
rare and judgment in using it. Stich is its character and composi- 
tion that it cannot fail if it is judiciously applied, lis results 



18 GUANO ON CORN. 

are uniform and well known, and where it has been most used 
it is most highly prized. 

GUANO ON INDIAN CORN. 

It is speaking within bounds to say that the judicious use of 
guano on the corn crop by every farmer in New England in the 
year 1859, would have added millions of bushels to the aggregate 
yield of that section alone, from tlie simple fact that it hastens 
the growth ayid maturity of the plant, and puts it out of the way of 
the frost. And whenever such a season as the last occurs, the 
same will always be true. Numerous instances might be men- 
tioned to substantiate this statement, if it needed any corrobora- 
tion. 

Mr. Alfred Montague, of Sunderland, took a piece of sandy plain, 
too poor to produce anything but a light crop of rye once in three 
or four years, plowed in 300 lbs of Peruvian guano per acre, 
gave it a light harrowing, planted and hoed twice, at a cost of 
eleven dollars, and took from it 25 bushels of good sound corn, 
being a net profit of $14, or 130 per cent, on the cost. " The 
profit on this acre,^^ says he, '•^ would purchase two acres of such 
land at the present market value.''^ His statement of an experi- 
ment to test the comparative value of guano and hog manure 
on cold land, in corn, has already been given. " These and 
other trials," he says, " have fully satisfied me, that while we 
can procure guano for three cents a pound, we may be confident 
that if properly used a fair annual investment in it will return a 
good income, lohether applied to warm or cold lands.^^ 

Col. David Moseley, of Westfield, taking a gravelly pasture 
that was never manured before, plowed in the fall and cross-plow- 
ed in the spring and sowed one ton of Peruvian guano upon eight 
acres. The corn was planted in hills three and a half feet each 
way, the guano having previously been mixed with a fourth 
part its own bulk of soil. The piece was cultivated twice, re- 
quiring but little hoeing. It yielded 218 bushels of good shell- 
ed corn, and " all that saw it, " says he, " judged that the guano 
increased the crop 100 bushels; the stalks, sold for ^30, 
would not have brouglit more than ten ; the corn sold for $110; 
so that the guano gave a profit of $77. I am confident it pro- 



GUANO AND GOOD STABLE MANURE. 19 

duccd more corn than $100 Avorth of manure, to say nothing 
about drawini? it one and a half miles. In the fall I sowed the 
above to rye, adding 150 lbs guano per acre ; it more than doub- 
led any previous crop and gave fifty per cent, more grass^ for 
feed, than ever before.''^ 

Col. Moselcy had so great confidence in it as an economical and 
reliable manure that ho followed up its use the next spring, 
plowed in fifteen cart loads of good stable manure per acre ou 
nine acres of warm river land, and then sowed 250 lbs Peruv- 
ian guano per acre, and went over it with a bush harrow. It 
was planted on the first of May with the Button corn. " Every 
hill," says he, " came up and was healthy, and of a dark green 
color, and was even over the whole field. The first week in Au- 
gust the ears were suitable for boiling ; I cut it up the second week 
of Sept. and husked in Oct. perfectly ripe and dry ; good judges 
admit that the guano increased the crop at least 20 bushels per 
acre, and iras ten or twelve days earlier for the guano; so that 
1350 lbs guano gave an increase of 180 bushels of corn. Upon 
one acre of the same field 1 sowed 300 lbs. guano ivithout any man- 
ure^ harrowed and bushed it in, planted at the same time and 
cultivated with the other. On harvesting, it was better every way 
than where it was manured and loO lbs guano applied, showing 
plainly that SOU lbs. of Peruvian guano will make more corn 
than 15 good loadi of good stable manure.'" 

Mr. Rufus Sanborn, of Hampton Falls, N. IT. plowed his land 
with a Michigan plow, sowed on 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano to 
the acre, plowed it again lightly, and put 100 lbs. in the hill and 
200 lbs. more round the hills before the second hoeing, and 
gathered ninety-eight bushels of shelled corn to the acre, as 
measured l)y his neighbors, and received the first premium of 
the Rockingham Co. Agricultural Society for his crop. He had 
no doubt the guano added very largely to it. With an improv- 
ed corn planter the guano in a rai.\turoof oi parts to one part of 
charcoal or wood ashes, can be dropped in the hill and covered 
an inch deep with soil, the same machine at the same time drop- 
ping the corn. With hills 3 1-2 feet apart each way it would 
apply at the rate of a spoonful of guano to a teospoonful of 
charcoal or ashes, and as the guano is covered with soil, the 
seed does not come in contact with it. 



20 GUANO ON POTATOES. 

Nearly, if not quite, every instance, where Peruvian guano 
has failed to produce profitable results on corn, may be ascribed 
to want of proper care in applying it. Hon. H. F. French, of 
Exeter, N. H. says : " I applied guano to about one acre of 
corn, at the rate of about one ounce to the hill, and covered it 
about one inch and a half deep, with a hoe, with my own hand, 
not one single hill was injured, and the whole was much benefit- 
ed, while close by, on similar soil, part of a neighbor's corn-field 
to which guano had been applied, looked as one might imagine 
Sodom and Gomorrah to appear after the first shower of fire and 
brimstone ; one half of the piece was nearly destroyed, while the 
other grew very handsomely. I inquired the reason of the dif- 
ference, and was informed that the first half was carefully cover- 
ed with a hoe and the other with the foot." The fact is, that if 
no injury occurred from a too immediate contact of the seed with 
the guano, it would indicate that the article was defective, or 
some other than pure Peruvian guano. The fault of the failure 
lies with the farmer himself, and not with the guano, if he neg- 
lects to use the proper precautions. 

GUANO ON POTATOES. 

There is a common impression among farmers that putrescent 
or farm yard manures have a tendency to increase the rot in 
potatoes. This has been fully confirmed by recent and very 
careful experiments, and may be considered as fully settled. In 
a case reported but a short time since, 30 tons of farmyard man- 
ure, costing $37,50 produced 160 bushels of sound, and 160 
bushels of unsound potatoes, on an acre and a quarter. The 
market value of the crop was $115.00, or a value, after deduct- 
ing cost of manure, of $77.50, while 800 lbs. of Peruvian guano 
costing $30, applied to the same extent of contiguous land, pro- 
duced 186 1-2 bushels sound, and 120 bushels of unsound pota- 
toes of a market value of $123.75, or a value, after deducting 
cost of guano, of $93.75. Potatoes contain a large per-centage 
of potash, yet notwithstanding this fact, potatoes require ammo- 
nia and phosphates to a greater extent than most other vegeta- 
bles, and as Peruvian guano contains from 16 to 18 per cent, 
of ammonia, and some 25 per cent, of phosphates, it is admirably 



FORTY-SEVEN EXPEBIUEMS. 



21 



suited to this crop, and is unquestionably one of the very best 
artificial or concentrated manures to bring the plant to the highest 
devclopmrnt. The editor of the Genesee Farmer, at Rochester, 
N. Y. instituted a scries of the most careful and accurate exper- 
iments to ascertain the manures best adapted to the potato, and 
in a recent number of that valuable journal these experiments 
are alluded to as follows : 

" In the same field on which the above experiments were 
made two acres were planted with potatoes without manure, and 
two acres with 300 lbs. of Peruvian puano jicr acre sown broad- 
cast. The two acres witliout manurc produced 238 bushels, 
and the two acres dressed with guano produced 410 bushels, 
or an increase of eighty-six bushels per acre.''^ In these trials 400 
lbs. of unleached wood ashes gave an increase of only five 
bushels per acre, while 150 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia gave an 
increase of 45 bushels per acre, and loO lbs. of sulphate of am- 
monia and oOOlbs. of superphosphate of lime mixed, gave 84 
bushels per acre. Since the above experiments were made a 
series of forty-seven experiments have been made in Scotland 
fully confirming the results of the editor, and in which Peruvian 
guano gave the largest increase of potatoes of any single man- 
ure, and was shown also to give the best results as an auxiliary 
to farm yard dung. These results arc so striking that they are 
worth preserving in a tabular form : 



Mftnures, uao and qn&ntity per am, 


No. busbeld 1 InrrMsetn 
p*r iirrn. | bushel* per acr* 


No manure. 


157 




890 lbs. of sulphate of lime, 


]68i 


Hi 


G(j3 lbs. of sup«'rphosphate, 


191 


34 


37G lbs. Peruvian guano, 


275 


118 


2.32 lbs. sulphate of ammonia. 


170 


22 


224 lbs. of nitrate of soda. 


193} 


36} 


lo loads of farm manurc, 


189i 


32i 


15 loads of farm manurc and | 


180 


23 


896 lbs. of sulphate of lime, 


15 loads of tarm manure and | 
370 lbs. of Peruvian guano, \ 


300i 


143i 


15 loads of farm manure and | 
663 lbs. of superphosphate, ) 


214i 


blk 


15 loads of farm manure and ) 


291 


134 


252 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia j 



22 EXPERIMENTS AT THE STATE FARM. 

These results correspond with those of Mr. Rufus Sanborn, of 
Hampton Falls, N. H., who planted potatoes on dry laud on 
which he had previously apphed sixteen loads of manure, plow- 
ed in. He put 100 lbs. Peruvian guano into the hills, on half 
an acre, leaving the rest with no manure except what was plow- 
ed in. He dug the potatoes in July and sold them at an aver- 
age price of $1.50 a bushel, getting just twenty-five per cent, 
more potatoes where guano was applied, and they were of bet- 
ter size. The crop was 100 bushels per acre. The value of gua- 
no and labor of applying it was three dollars, and the gain by 
its use about twelve and a half bushels of potatoes which sold 
for $18.75. On another piece he applied swamp mud in the 
hill to the whole, and to a part Peruvian guano at the rate of 
100 lbs. per acre. The guano increased the crop one bushel in 
ten. The crop on that piece was 200 bushels to the acre, so 
that the 100 lbs. of guano, costing $3, gave twenty bushels of 
potatoes worth about $16, being later and of less price than the 
preceding crop. 

The experiments most carefully conducted at the Massachu- 
setts State Farm, in Westboro', and reported in the Second 
Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agricul- 
ture, show conclusively that guano produced the largest and 
most profitable results as compared with any other manures 
used. On two acres planted with potatoes and 400 lbs. of gua- 
no applied in the hill, the product was 179 1-2 bushels per 
acre. On two other acres which had been mown three years 
without any manure, till the land was broken up the year previ- 
ous to the experiment, and sown with corn for fodder, on which 
no manure was used, 400 lbs. ofg^uano to the acre produced 379 
bushels or 189 1-2 bushels to the acre. The committee, Hon. M. 
P. Wilder, Chairman, remarked with regard to these experiments, 
that " Guano yielded the largest crop, even on land ivhich had 
received no manure for four years. In this instance, ten dollars' 
worth of guano produced 189 1-2 bushels of superior potatoes 
per acre. 

" In relation to guano they confirm the general sentiment which 
has obtained, both in this country and in England, from its use, 
and assign it a place among the most economical and valuable 



GUANO ON WHEAT 23 

fertilizers. It possesses peculiar advantages in humid climates 
and in clayey, argillaceous soils, where evaporation is less active 
than in thin or silicious grounds*. Hence in England its use 
has heen continually increasing ; and here, as there, it has 
proved not only useful for all crops, but peculiarly successful in 
the potato and wheat crops." And this distinguished horticul- 
turist says : " The doubts which have been expressed in relation 
to its durability and utility may be ascribed to its limited use 
and the want of scientific application." 

Col. Moscley, of Westfield, whose experiments have already 
been alluded to, says: '-Peruvian guano does equally well on the 
potato crop ; 300 lbs. have given me more bushels of potatoes 
than 20 loads of stable manure." 

Wm. C. Little, of J lampstead, N.H., selected six rows in a 
piece of potatoes; two for guano, using a table spoonful in the 
hill; two for super-phosphate, using the same quantity in the 
hill, and on tho other two, put a shovelful of green manure in 
the hill. The guano rows yielded 4 bushels, the super-phos- 
phate, 'I 1-3, and the green barn yard manure, 3 1- 3. Mr. 
Little thinks there is a very great incidental advantage in the 
use of guano, inasmuch as crops planted with it are less infested 
with weeds, the seeds of which are introduced in stable manure. 
The trouble and cost of hoeing are consequently less. 

GUANO ON WHEAT. 

Wheat lands cannot fail to be benefited l)y a judicious appli- 
cation of guano and other nitrogenous manures. Manures rich 
in ammonia not only increase tho crop, but also produce a grain 
richer in gluten, and therefore intrinsically much more valuable. 
Ucrmbstadt, a celebrated German chemist, took ten patches, 
each of one hundred square feet — of the same soil, (a sandy 
loam ) and manured them with Cijual weights of different man- 
ures in the dry state, and sowed equal quantities (1-2 lb.) of tho 
same wheat, and collected, weighed and analyzed tho produce. 
He found that the wheat on the plotunmanurcd contained only 
9.2 per cent, of gluten, that manured with vegetable manure 9.0 
per cent., that manured with cow dung 12. per cent, that man- 



24 SPECIFIC MANURE FOR WHEAT. 

ured with pigeon's dung 12.2 per cent., that with horse dung 
13.7 per cent., that with human urine 35.1 per cent., that with 
goats' dung, 32.9, that with sheep's dung 32.9, that with night- 
soil 33.9, and that with ox blood 34.2. Guano was not used in 
the experiment, but the fact that it is exceedingly rich in nitro- 
gen, or in ammonia, the form in which the plant procures its 
nitrogen, shows that, in this respect, it must prove the most val- 
uable application within the farmer's reach, since it is admitted 
on all hands to be the cheapest source from which ammonia, 
and of course nitrogen, can be obtained. Good Peruvian gua- 
no is very nearly identical with blood, urine and night soil, in 
the amount of nitrogen it contains in the form of ammonia. 
As seen in the careful experiments given above, the glu- 
ten abounds in wheat in proportion as nitrogen is found 
in the soil or is supplied to it. The hardest varieties of 
wheat, which contain the most gluten, contain, also, the 
most nitrogen which promotes the rising of the dough, so 
necessary in making good and light bread, and the quan- 
tity of this substance (gluten,) varies, according to the soil 
or the manure, from 5 per cent, in poor qualities to more than 
30 per cent, in the best. Hence, supposing the quantity of 
wheat per acre were not increased by the liberal use of guano, 
the intrinsic value of it is largely increased, since the quality is 
greatly improved. 

Guano is certain in its effects on wheat. The Hon. James A. 
Pearce, U. S. Senator from Maryland, an extensive farmer, ap- 
plied 350 lbs. of guano to an acre of growing wheat, the land 
being entirely unimproved, and very poor. It was applied as a 
top-dressing. " The wheat rras doubled in quantity at least ; — 
fine clover succeeded it, and in two crops, one of corn and one 
of small grain, three and four years afterwards, the effects are 
still apparent." This result is in accordance with the opinions 
of the editors of the Albany Cultivator, already stated. 

At a meeting of the Reading (England,) Farmers' Club, af- 
ter a full and complete discussion of the best and cheap- 
est manures for wheat, it was resolved as an expression of 
the opinion of the farmers present, "That it is the opinion of 
this meeting that nitrogen is the specific manure required by 



DECISION OF A FARMERS* CLUB. 25 

wheat, and that Peruvian sruano is the best and the cheapest 
medium through ichich it can be obtained^ 

GUANO ON RYE. 

Wliat has hcen said of the eflfect and vahie of guano on wheat, 
will aj)|)ly also to rye, and indeed to the cereal crops generally, 
and the mode of application would not, of course, materially dif- 
fer. Both careful experiments and the general practice of those 
who have used guano most extensively, corroborate the statement 
that this is the best and cheapest manure for wheat and rye es- 
pecially. 

Moses Stebbins, of South Dcerfield, Mass., says : " The field 
on which I used guano, contains 8 acres, consisting of loam, 
sand loam, with a coarse sand subsoil, clay loam and a red 
gravel ; each variety of soil has been treated alike with guano 
for five years in succession. I consider it asvalnalile on loamy 
soils as on sand, and 1 think that my land has improved 100 per 
cent, with Peruvian gvayio J" His account with guano on wheat 
and rye is given in full in the Apiculture of Massachxisetts for 
18o9, where his crop fur 18o9 is stated as being: 
Debtor To 800 lbs. Guano, $ 24 00 

" 800 *' Plaster, 4 00 

" 4 bushels Seed Wheat, $2 00 8 00 
" 3 do Rye, $3; int. 12 00 15 00 
" Plowing, sowing, harvesting, &c. 30 00 

$ 81 00 

Credit By 77 7-10 bushels Wheat, $2, $ 155 40 

" 79 1-2 do Rye, 1, 79 50 

3 1-2 tons Straw, 6, 21 00 $255 90 



Z 174 90 

The sum total of expenditures for 5 years is § 57<» 55 

Income of products of five years, 1331 23 



Balance in favor of Guano in the 5 years, - - $ 754 6S 
To which may l»e added improvement on land, - - i()0 00 

$ 914 08 



26 OATS AND BUCKWHEAT. 

Mr. Stebbins received the first premiums of the Hampshire 
FrankUn and Hampden Agricultural Society, for crops of wheat 
and Rye grown with guano in 1859. 

GUANO ON OATS. 

Experience shows that a somewhat smaller quanity of guano 
per acre, should be used for oats than for either wheat or rye, oth- 
erwise the growth of straw is too much encouraged and the oats 
are more liable to lodge. 

In a careful trial made by Mr. Theodore G. Huntington, of 
Hadley, Mass., the oats not only yielded much more, but were 
of much better quality, where the guano was used, and this re- 
sult has been obtained wherever guano has been properly applied 
to this crop. Mr. Huntington applied it at the rate of 200 lbs. 
per acre, on a cold, dry loam. A piece was left undressed to 
note the difference. Taking the crop from a rod of the guanoed 
part and another rod contiguous to it, of the unguanoed, he 
found that that dressed with guano, yielded 12 quarts of oats, 
weighing 10 lbs., and straw 10 1-4 lbs. This, per acre, would 
be 50 1-2 bushels, worth, say $26 75, and 1040 lbs. of straw, 
worth $6 56, making $33 31 per acre. The rod which receiv- 
ed no guano, yielded 8 quarts of oats, weighing 5 6-16 lbs, or 
at the rate of 29 bushels, weighing 30 lbs. per bushel, and worth, 
say, $14 50, and 820 lbs. of straw, worth, say $3 28, or in all, 
$17 78, making a difference per acre in favor of guano 
of $15 53. 

All substances containing nitrogen may be regarded as spe- 
cial manures for the cereal and the grass crops. This sub- 
stance promotes a luxuriant growth of these crops, and hence 
its striking effect when properly applied to wheat, rye, and oats. 

GUANO FOR BUCKWHEAT. 

Mr. Samuel F. West, of Columbia, Conn., says : " In the 
summer of 1854, about July 1, we sowed four acres of buck- 
wheat. The land was then very dry and continued dry for 
many days, insomuch that a small part only of the grain came 



PRACTICAL STATEMENTS. 27 

up, and wo wcro apprehensive that we should lose our crop. 
Wo harrowed in at the time of sowing the seed, 100 lbs. of gua- 
no per acre. After many days rain came and we have never 
had better results from guano ; it was apparent to every one 
who noticed the field, for wo left a small part luiguanocd. On 
that part the yield was not as larfre by tiro thirds. We never 
had i^tano fid., even by sowing in dry weather." 

Mr. W. H. Yale, of Meriden, Conn., had a piece of land that 
was nearly worthless, bought for ten dollars an acre, and which 
never before paid the interest of that, to say nothing of fences 
and taxes. He states the case as follows : " 1 plowed, as I 
thought, about IJ acres, the latter part of June 1850, (since 
measured and found to contain 3 acres, 1 rood, \'l rods.) Sow- 
ed the 9th of .July, with buckwheat and 3oO lbs. guano, on two 
and a half acres, harrowed in with the grain. Where no guano 
was put, the grain was about a foot high ; some of it so short 
that it would fall through the cradle. I do not think there 
was more than >i bushels on that part. The rest of the grain 
would average about three feet high. The whole when cleaned 
up yielded about 77 3-4 bushels. The 2 1-2 acres must have 
yielded nearly 70 bushels, — the grain being badly tangled, a 
good deal shelled out when I was cutting it. 

Four days work self and team, § 8 00 

2 1-2 bushels grain for seed, 

Guano, 3oO lbs., . . . . 

Boy and team to harrow it in. 

Sowing Guano, . - . . 

Cutting, 3 days, .... 

Raking and thrashing 3 days, 

29 87 
77 3-4 bushels buckwheat at fi2 els., the price at the mill, 
$48 20. The straw was worth $;"> or §<> for bedding cattle 
and will more than pay for cleaning the grain, carting to 
mill anil interest on the land." 

The lion. 11. W. Cuslmian, of Bernardston, whose experi- 
ments with guano ou other crops have l>een alluded to, says: "By 
my experiments last year, 1 find guano to be more profitable for 



1 


87 


10 


50 


1 


50 


• 1 


00 


3 


00 


4 


00 



28 EXPERIENCE OF FARMERS. 

buckwheat than for any other crop ; the same is true this year. 
I have arrived at the conclusion that on quite poor and worn- 
out land, the application of 50 lbs. of Peruvian guano, costing 
$1 62, to the acre, will produce good crops for a series of years. 
A larger quantity than 50 or 75 lbs. to the acre, will prove in- 
jurious — making too much straw and consequently less grain." 

Col. David Moseley, also, " sowed half a ton at the rate of 
100 to 150 lbs. per acre with buckwheat. The drought affec- 
ted some fields so that it would not more than pay for harvest- 
ing. It was so with mine where no guano was used, side by 
side, but where it was used, the drought had very little if any 
effect. It was all cultivated alike. In raking to set it up, the 
part where the guano was, produced nine bunches to one on the 
same distance where there was no guano used, and the straw 
was increased enough to pay for the guano — to say nothing of 
the grain, which was very heavy and nice." 

These practical results are sufficient to show the value of 
Peruvian guano on buckwheat, and indicate that a less quantity 
per acre should be applied to this crop, to obtain the best re- 
sults. Where, however, the object is to obtain a rank growth 
of stalk, to turn in green as a manure, a larger quantity should 
be used than if the object were to get the largest yield of seed, 
and 150 or 200 pounds would not be too much for such a 
purpose. 

GUANO ON BROOMCORN. 

As might be expecl rd from the general similarity of the two 
crops, the effect of gi^ano on broom-corn is very much like that 
on Indian corn. 

Alfred Montague, of Sunderland, Mass., wishing to try the 
comparative effect of guano and barn-yard manure on broom- 
corn, says : " I measured one and a half acres of good meadow 
land that had been well manured and well cultivated for a long 
time. Upon one half of it, I spread and plowed in, eight loads 
of good yard-manure, for which I paid eight dollars. On the 
other half, being in the centre of the piece, I spread guano, at 
the same cost as the yard-manure, (i. e. at the first cost ; tlie 



SPECIAL MANURE FOB ROOTS. 30 

expense of applying the guano was but little, compared with 
that of applying the yard manure.) I harrowed in the guano. 
Then I planted to brooiii-corn, using a little super-jdiosphato in 
tiie hill upon the whole. The piece was managed alike, during 
the whole season after tiie dilferent manures were applied. Ma- 
ny persons wlio have passed, have asked why the middle of this 
piece looked so much the best. I referred them to the guano. 
The crop is not yet harvested, but good judges have said there 
would be 200 pounds more of broom-brush at)d a greater excess 
of seed upon the guanoed half." Such is the testimony all along 
the Connecticut river valley, where guano has been properly ajj- 
pliod to this crop. 

Mr. Thaddeus Smith, of Hadley, says : " I have used guano 
on a piece of land in broom-corn, /or six years in succession, and 
it ImUls froixi yet. I should prefer 400 lbs. of i^-uano to 12 loads of 
compost manure^ for six years to come for the same crop and 
on tlie same land.''^ 

GUANO ON ROOT CROPS. * 

As already stat.^d, on a previous page, the various phosphates, 
csi»ecially phosphate of lime, maybe regarded as the si)ecial 
manure for roots. They require the phosphates in large quan- 
tities, while soils generally contain them in small quantities. 
Hence the very striking ell'ect of an application of a properly 
made super-phosphate of lime to the root crop, turnips, carrots, 
beets, parsnips, <fec. Now according to a writer in the Rui'al 
Cyclopedia, already quoted, guano is, weight for weight, fifty 
per cent, richer in phosphate of lime than even crushed bones, 
and the analysis of Prof. Way, the distinguished chemist of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, discovered no less than 34.45 per 
eont. of earthy phosphates in one specimen, while the 
average of analyses of 32 different s|)ccimens of Peruvian 
guano, was 24.12. It is this that makes guano especially 
adapted to the culture of roots, as its large amount of ammonia 
makes it also e>i)ccially adapted to the grains. The produce of 
grains depends materially on ammonia from whence the nitrogen 
which they require is obtained. The growth of roots depends 



30 SECRET OP RAISING ROOTS. 

on the amount of phosphates within their reach, either existing 
in the soil or artificially applied. For grain or root crops, there- 
fore, guano, as might be anticipated from its chemical composi- 
tion, has been found a powerful fertilizer. More than 30 tons 
of Belgian carrots have been grown by the use of guano on one 
acre, which had received nothing but mineral manures for years 
previous. 

What says Dr. Ure, on this point, so important to the grower 
of root crops ? "The Peruvian guano contains from 10 to 25 per 
cent, of phosphate of lime, the same substance as bone-dust, but 
elaborated by the birds into a pulpy consistence, which, while it 
continues insoluble in water, has been rendered thereby more 
readily absorbable and digestible (so to speak) by the roots of 
plants. I have therefore no doubt, that by the judicious appli- 
cation of these genuine guanos, mixed with twice or thrice their 
weight of a marly or calcareous soil, to convert their phosphate 
of ammonia into phosphate of lime and carbonate of ammonia, as 
also to dilute all their ammoniacal compounds — such crops will 
be produced, even on inferior lands, as the farmer can scarcely 
raise upon more improved soils by ordinary manure." 

Without going further into details with regard to the effect 
of Peruvian guano on these most important crops, we may ob- 
serve that the experience of our best root growers, and of our 
largest market gardeners fully corroborates the statements made 
above, and that the latter feel compelled to use it in considera- 
ble quantities, as the most efficient means of getting their vege- 
tables as early as possible into the market, very early crops pay- 
ing far better on the whole, than later ones. 

The great secret of raising root crops successfully, is to keep 
the land free from weeds, and this is not possible with the use 
of stable manure. Millions of small seeds not only of the true 
grasses, but also of many low swale grasses and weeds are carri- 
ed into the barn in the hay, and find their way into the manure 
in spite of the greatest care on the part of the farmer, often, in- 
deed, swept into the manure in the form of litter, and cause im- 
mense labor in the culture of hoed crops. 

We have known many a crop of carrots and other valuable 
roots, so choked up with weeds, introduced in this way, as liter- 



GREAT WORK ON CABBAGES. 31 

ally not to be worth the hoeing. The use of concentrated man- 
ures with these crops, is therefore, almost a matter of necessity, 
if we arc to grow them to a profit, and of all concentrated man- 
ures for this jmrpose, guano is both tlic cheapest and the best. 
We cannot be too emphatic on this point, and we say again, 
without fear of contradiction from any source, use guano on root 
crops, and if the land needs it, put your l)arn-yard manure on 
the land at the time of laying down to grass. You cannot afford 
to pay the extra labor, which the culture of hoed crops, especi- 
ally root crops, in land infested with weed seed, will require. 

GUANO ON ONIONS. 

What has been said above in regard to root crops in general, 
applies with special force to the onion crop, where its effects are 
marked and in the highest degree satisfactory. The onion re- 
quires a ligbt, mellow and rich soil, but a heavy dressing of 
stable manures, would not only be detrimental to the crop, but 
very expensive, both in the original outlay and the increased 
cost of weeding. No crop requires more cleanly and careful 
cultivation than the onion, and no one pays better for it. 

GUANO ON CABBAOKS. 

In the report of David Choate, of Essex, above alluded to, he 
says '' guano seems to have done its great work uj)on the cal> 
bagc crop. A large tJible-spoonful was put in eaih hill, mixed 
with a peck of soil. This was upon reclaimed meadow, once 
submerged, but now producing 4000 noblo cabbage heads to an 
acre. He ( Mr. li. the owner) thinks there could have been no 
cabbages on that land without the guano." 

Such is the testimony of all who have properly applied Peru- 
vian guano to this crop, and they concur in saying that the j)lant 
heads much fuller and heavier and mucii more surely with guano 
than without. After the land is properly prepared mark it off" in 
sijuarc.", at suitable distances, depending of course somewhat 
u|)on the variety it is proposed to set. Throw out a spade full 
of soil where the plant is to stand, and put into each hole a 



82 TASTE OF CONNOISSEURS. 

spoonful of guano, at the rate of about 400 lbs. per acre, and 
mix and cover it with the soil, set the plants and water them if 
in a dry time. After the first hoeing a small handful of ashea 
to each plant may be used to good advantage. 

Cabbages, turnips, beets and in fact all plants of the brassica 
family, will bear a larger and stronger application of ammoniacal 
manures than most other cultivated plants of the farm. There 
is scarcely any fear of over manuring them as there is with oats 
and some of the grains where too strong an application might 
encourage a too luxuriant growth of straw. 

GUANO ON TOBACCO. 

We have referred in the preceding pages to the use of guano 
in the Duchy of Cleves in Prussia. It is found there, that the 
cultivation of tobacco, in particular, has been very much in- 
creased by the use of guano, which gives the plant a vigor of 
growth that enables it to choke the weeds. It has also been re- 
marked there that the ravages of the slug have been less frequent 
since the guano came into use. The same has been found to be 
the case in Maryland and Virginia, where the tobacco worm ac- 
tually turns sick of guano, and refuses to partake of his accus- 
tomed food. More than this, they say there that the tobacco 
grown with guano has not that rank flavor which it always de- 
rives from the use of strong stable manures, in the quantities 
which the plant requires. 

As this plant is a gross feeder the use of 400 or 500 lbs. would 
be advantageous, unless a considerable quantity of stable man- 
ure is also to be applied in connection with it. It may be sown 
broad-cast and plowed in shallow or harrowed in, or it may be 
applied at the rate of a spoonful in holes dug to receive the 
young plants and mixed or covered up with soil two or three 
inches deep. 

But we would never advise so large an application of guano 
to this crop, but would by all means say use from two to three 
hundred pounds, and several cords of stable manure in connec- 
tion with it. Tobacco cultivated with nothing but guano, 
smokes with a black ash which is detestable to connoisseurs. Not- 



BOPS, SQUAiiUGS, MELONS. 88 

withstanding this, from 200 to 400 lbs. per acre can be used 
with perfect safety and to great advantage to the grower. 

Mr. Thaddeus Smith, of Iladley, Mass., who has averaged from 
twelve to seventeen acres of tobacco, raised with guano, for tho 
last ten years, puts on eighteen cartloads of yard manure to the 
acre, plowed in as early as the ground is dry in spring. Then 
in cross-plowing in .Juno, puts on 300 lbs. or 3.30, of Peruvian 
guano, 200 ll)s. of which are plowed in, and the remaining 100 
or loO lbs. are put in the hill. " For the last three years," he 
says : " I have left some three acres of an average quality of 
land where I used no guano, and by good judges it has usually 
been estimated that there iras not so much tobacco by oOO or 400 
lbs. per acre, where no g^/nno was used. The difference was 
very marked all through the season. Where the guano was used 
the crop started earlier and kept so all the season. 1 should pre- 
fer 18 loads of barn-yard manure, and 350 lbs. of guano., to 30 
loads of barn-yard manure. 

I think ofiO or 400 lbs. of guano per acre, should be used to 
give the crop a start and that that amount will not injure tho 
lobacco, but I am satisfied it will not do to raise tobacco with 
guano alone." 

The same strong testimony to its value, and the necessity of 
its use, is given by Mr. Yj. P. Hubbard, of Iladley, Hon. Paoli 
Lathrop, of South Hadley, and by Mr. Thomas J. Field, of 
Xorthfield, and many others, all large growers of this crop in 
the Connecticut valley. 

GU.1X0 ON HOPS. 

Guano composted with salt, at the rate of 300 lbs. per acre of tho 
former to 100 lbs. of the latter, with some saltpetre and plaster 
added if convenient, and sown and harrowed, or plowed in shal- 
low, will be found to be highly beneficial, and to prevent the ex- 
haustion of the soil so generally complained of by hop growers. 
This plant is also a gross feeder, and requires good land and 
plenty of inaiuiro. 

Guano on Squashes, Melons, and other vines produces a 



34 GUANO OX TREES. 

striking effect and some of the largest yields have been obtained 
by its use, especially in connection with farm yard manures. 

GUANO FOR GARDEN PLANTS. 

One of the largest and most successful grape growers in New 
England, the Hon. E. W. Bull, of Concord, recently said to 
the writer of these pages : " Guano is invaluable. It stimulates 
and promotes a thrifty and vigorous growth of roots. No 
manure will form roots so healthy and luxuriant as guano, and 
the horticulturist could not do without it." 

Charles Mclntesh, author of one of the best " Books of the 
Garden " ever published, and till recently curator of the royal 
gardens of the King of the Belgians, says : "This manure 
before being used should be kept as dry and as little exposed to 
the air as possible. It is an excellent stimulating manure, ben- 
eficial to almost all garden crops, and is found of much service 
when mixed with composts for pot plants. When applied to 
growing crops in a liquid state, its efiects are speedy and 
obvious. Indeed we seldom water any plant which we wish to 
stimulate rapidly, without mixing guano with the water. It is 
better to apply a little at a time, and repeat tlie application. In 
its liquid state we have found it very beneficial to all the bras- 
sica tribe, to asparagus, rhubarb and seakale." 

The reader could ask for no higher authority, and it could 
not be found if he did. 

For celery, asparagus, the pie plant, cauliflowers and other 
plants whose perfection consists much in a tender and succu- 
lent growth, guano is almost indispensable, and it is extensively 
used in the garden and field culture of these, and similar plants, 
by the most successful market gardeners. 

To strawberries, also, guano has been applied with the most 
marked success by way of watering with a solution of guano, 
for which one pound is sufficient for ten gallons of water. 

For trees of various kinds, both of the garden and the orchard, 
it has been found a very useful manure. Tiie late Mr. Tesch- 
macher, says : " The experiments with guano on trees which 
have come under my observation, including exotics, number 



ECONOMY OF GITANO CONSIDEllFD. 86 

about one hundred and fil'ty. The action has invariably been 
to produce largo foliage of a deep healthy green." It is cusuim- 
ary to work it into the soil at some distance from tlie trunk of the 
tree, and whore it will find its way down to the fibrous roots. 

Ongrajics, it multiplies and quickens the formation of roots 
and promot4^s a rapid growth of wood and it has a tendency to 
hasten the maturity of the fruit and secure it from the frosts. 
On roses and other flowering plants, guano deepens the 
color and gives far greater brilliancy to the blossom and a 
thrifty ap{)earance to the whole plant which no other application 
has been found to produce. Let any one try the experiment 
judiciously, mixing a little charcoal with it and placing it 
around, but not in direct contact with the roots, and ex])eri- 
ment will prove the truth of the suggestion. 

On beans, pease, and other similar garden and field crops it is 
one of the most economical manures. 

Guano, in fact, furnishes the food of plants in a state cosily 
soluble, and ready to be taken up, and is, therefore, better 
adapted to the wants of vegetation than any other substance. 

But many, otherwise intelligent farmers are sometimes heard 
to say, without much consideration, that " they cannot afford to 
l>uy guano at the present high prices." They forget, or over- 
look the fact, that at three cents, or three and a half cents a 
l>ound, the cost of manuring an acre well, with guano, is less 
than ten dollars, a cost at which they could scarcely afford to 
haul out farm yard manure enough to produce the same effect 
on the crops as this same ten dollars worth of guano, the trans- 
portation and application of which is the merest trifle added to 
its first cost. It would bo o»iually, if not even more jiroper to 
say that they could not afford to manure at all, on account of 
the great cxjiense of labor of men and teams in forking over, 
loading, teaming, spreading and applying, and then the addi- 
tional cost of cultivating a crop manured with stable manure 
ind wood seeds. 

Such remarks arc, thcrol'oro, made without due consideration, 
^ince any farmer, whatever may be his circmustances, can afford 
to make an investment which, witli projier care, is sure to pay a 



36 GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY. 

good interest on the outlay. Good economists tell us to invest 
where we can get quick returns, and not where we must wait for 
the interest for an indefinite length of time, with the prospect, 
at the end of it, of losing both interest and principal. 

It is an undeniable fact that the use of guano is more and 
more appreciated by the farmers of Great Britain and other 
countries, where it has been found thai they cannot afford to do 
without it. When the culture of clover and turnips was first 
introduced into England it was objected to by some, with the 
remark that the landlord might grow these crops, if he liked, 
but the tenant must grow something that would enable him to 
pay his rent. What was the result ? He soon found that he 
could not afford to pay his rent without them ; and the same 
result has followed the introduction of guano. 

And so it has been in this country. The consumption of 
guano has rapidly increased since its introduction, and its 
economy has become more and more apparent. The importa- 
tion of it into the port of Baltimore, alone, in the very last year 
of our Lord, 1859, exceeded that of 1858, by upwards of 
42,000 tons ! 

What says Col. Moseley, of Westfield, one of the best practical 
farmers in the western part of Mass., on this point ? " My ex- 
perience from the experiments made," (and which, by the way, 
have extended over several years and to the use of many tons) 
proves that one ton of the genuine Peruvian guano will make more 
corn than one hundred loads of good manure, worth, with us, one 
dollar per load, and 300 pounds has always made more corn for 
me than twenty loads of my best manure.'''' Here is a better 
result, at less than ten dollars an acre, and that uniformly, than 
twenty dollars worth of barn yard manure, to say nothing of 
the great saving of time, labor and teams, which, when it is 
considered that it comes at the very busiest season of the year, 
amounts to a very nice little sum. 

Again, some object that the sale of the article is monopolized 
by the Peruvian government, which, they say, keeps up the 
price. This objection, when properly considered, will be found 
to have no weight. It is true the Peruvian government has the 
jurisdiction over the islands, and is justly, and according to the 



A GUARANTY OF PUHITT. 87 

law of nations, the proprietor of all tlio giumo on them. That 
government has established agencies, in all the prominent ports 
where guano is entered. It fixes the prices of the article and 
those prices are much lower in this country than they arc in 
England and other countries. But this very monopoly, so far 
from being unnecessarily arbitrary and burdensome, actually 
protects the larmer more surely than any other arrangement 
could possil)ly do. 

Xor arc the prices fixed upon by the government, high, con- 
sidering the intrinsic value of the article. Peruvian guano 
is cheaper by I'ur, at the present prices, than any other concen- 
trated manure in the market, and as long as its present high 
character is maintained, it will remain so. Neither the Peru- 
vian government nor the authorized agents could have any 
motive, while the monopoly exists, for selling an inferior arti- 
cle, but on the contrary, lioth the government and every agent 
has a direct interest in keeping up its high cliaracter and it^ 
perfect purity. Does any one supi)ose that this high character 
would be so certainly maintained if the trade were in the hands 
of speculators ? Many of the best farmers of Great Britain 
have gone so far as to declare that they would not use the 
article if its management were in the hands of private specu- 
lators. Tlie monopoly of the Peruvian g-overnment, thereforey 
is a sure g^iaranty of the purity of the article if it is procured di- 
rectly from the authorized and responsible ai^ents. 

The farmer will sometimes buy a cheap kind of guano instead 
of the be*it Peruvian, simply because the price is a little less. 
There can be no greater mistake. The properties of the best 
guano are well known, and we can predict with certainty what 
results will follow the proper aj)plication of a certain quantity 
per acre. With most other guanos there is no cx^rtainty as to 
the results, and tlie difference in price is seldom proportionate 
to the difference in quality. The risk of buying them is con- 
sequently much greater, and the farmer cannot ordinarily afford 
to sacrifice both the price of the manure and the time and crops 
which he may lose by his mistake. The best warranted 
Peruvian guano should, therefore, have the preference over 
all others. 



38 MODE OF APPLYING. 

Having considered the practical value of guano, it is time to 
come to the 

MODE OF APPLICATION. 

It must be evident from wliat has already been said, that the 
mode of applying guano will materially affect the result, and 
hence the importance of the farmer's acquainting himself with 
the strength and character of the article he proposes to use, and 
the best method of using it. Much may be gathered from the 
statements of practical farmers in the earlier pages of this work 
and from the remarks of scientific men who are familiar with 
it, but it will be useful to dwell at some greater length upon 
this part of the subject on which so much of the farmer's success 
depends. 

In the first place it may be proper to say that guano may be 
stored for a considerable length of time, without being subject 
to injury, if kept dry and not opened and exposed to the air. 
If, therefore, it is found convenient to keep it some time, these 
conditions should always be strictly observed. 

If it is to be applied on the surface and harrowed in, as where 
it is used for a wheat or any other grain crop, no preparation 
whatever is needed except to sift out and pulverize the lumps, when 
it should be applied immediately and harrowed in tvithout delay. 
For such use we say, most decidedly, never mix anything' with 
it. If mixed at once with the soil the ammoniacal and volatile 
parts will be very soon surrounded and absorbed by the parti- 
cles of the soil. An enormous waste and loss often follow a 
mixture with any compost containing caustic alkalies, such as 
ashes, lime or other similar substances. If applied alone the 
soil will best adapt it for the use of plants. 

But if it is to be used as a top dressing on grass or grains, 
especially with a probability that dry weather will follow, a some- 
what different course is generally preferred. When it is first 
taken out of the bags, let it be sifted as above to separate the 
coarser lumps from the finer portions. Have a quantity of 
loam at hand, say not less than five times the bulk of the guano, 
to be mixed with it. Let a part of this loam be spread on the 
barn floor or other convenient place and covered with a thin and 



TIMK or APPLYING. o9 

regular layer of guano, and another layer of loam and so on, for 
the purpose of getting as perfect and even a distribution and 
mixture as possible. Those alternate layers, when all is added 
to the heap, should bo shoveled over thoroughly. The addition 
of loam or some similar absorbent is thought to bo important, 
though rather as a means of diluting it and of enabling the sow- 
er to spread it evenly. We arc inclined to think it can be sown 
as uniformly by hand without any mixture as with, and that 
this labor of composting even for a top dressing, if it is to 1)0 
applied at the proper time, may bo saved. A larger quantity of 
dry loam or uuick may be used if thought desirable. 

The lumps may be pounded up and mixed like the rest, or they 
may be covered up in a considerable quantity of muck or loam 
and left for several days in a dry place, when they will become 
softened and may be mixed with greater case. 

If the farmer has plenty of leisure and adoj)ts this method of 
composting rather than of applying without any mixture, let the 
compost, after it has been carefully formed, remain under cover 
for some days, in a dry place, not exposed to a draft of air, be- 
fore using it. The whole mass will thus be penetrated with the 
strength of the guano and a more even distribution will be 
practicable. The mixture will be improved if it can lie two or 
three weeks in this way, or even longer if the air has little ac- 
cess to it. 

Select, ifj)ossiblc, a damp showery day to sow it in, especially 
if the application is to l)e made broadcast us u t()))-drossing for 
grass or grain lands. 

For this purpose the lime of the application may be in the 
month of Xovombcr or on the late snows of March or April, but 
not later. If it were proposed to apply 300 lbs., which is found 
by experience to l)e sufficient on ordinary crops to produce the 
best results, it would be a very good plan to apply l.')0 lbs. in 
November, spread as eveidy as possible, and to reserve the re- 
mainder till March or early in April, especially if the land is 
pretty level ho that the top-dressing will not hr liable to be wash- 
ed off. A top dressing is sometimes successfully made as lato 
as May, but the liability to drought is so great that it is not to 
be recommended if it can be avoided. " Better lat€ than never," 



40 ABSORBING POWER OF THE SOIL. 

may still hold good, but if on a late spring application, no very 
striking results should follow, do not condemn the guano, but 
determine the next spring to take time by the forelock. 

The rule should be to top-dress grass lands in November, 
March or April, and to select for it a damp, drizzly day. Of the 
two we should rather give the preference to the former period, 
as by it a vigorous growth of root is promoted and the plant feels 
it early in the spring, and if the weather were all right, we 
should not think it so important to compost at all. 

If applied to arable land, it should be immediately covered 
with the harrow or otherwise, so as to be mixed with the soil, 
and if the piece is designed for grain, the application of guano 
would be best a few days, say a week or ten days before the 
grain is sown, where it is practicable to do it. It then becomes 
so thoroughly incorporated with the soil that there is no risk or 
danger of injury to the tender roots of the plants. If it is de- 
signed to sow it on winter wheat or rye, let only half the amount 
intended to be used be applied in the fall, and reserve the 
remainder to apply as a top-dressing in March. If too large a 
quantity is applied to the crop in the fall it might stimulate a 
too thrifty and tender growth, and render it more liable to 
winter kill. But the use of a part of it in autumn is impor- 
tant to promote a strong and vigorous growth of root when it 
will be far less liable to be heaved by the frost. Many a crop 
might have been saved from being frost thrown by the use of 
guano. 

We say, therefore, prepare the land, sow on 150 lbs. of Pe- 
ruvian guano, and harrow it in a week before you intend to sow 
the wheat if it is practicable, that is if the weather is damp, and 
the land in suitable condition. Guano ought not to be applied, 
of course, in the midst of a drought when the surface soil might 
have somewhat the appearance of an ash heap. In such a case, 
it would be far better to wait till after the crop was fairly up 
and spread it broad-cast in some rainy day as a top-dressing, or 
even to sow it on, and harrow it in, with the wheat or rye. 

If practicable and convenient, however, we prefer the former 
method of applying it, some days beforehand. The absorbing 
power of the soil will hold the volatile parts of the manure 



A GUANO COMPOST. 41 

ready preiKired for the roots of the plants without the addition 
of loam or any other mixture, and thus a good deal of un- 
necessary trouble will be saved. The wheat or rye may then 
be sown and harrowed in, or which is far better, drilled in, with 
no Hability to injury from too close contact with the guano. 
If, then, it has another dressing of loO lbs. as a top-dressing on 
the late snows of March or April, it will produce a better crop 
than if the full amount were applied at once. 

For oats, which are sown in the spring, we have already ad- 
vised a somewhat less quantity per acre, say, loO lbs. or -00 lbs., 
and we would not take the trouble to compost, especially if the 
guano can be spread and harrowed in a few days before sowing 
the seed. The guano ought, however, to be sifted as before, 
and the coarser lumps broken up as finely as possible, otherwise 
its distribution would not be even and uniform. 

And the same may be said of buckwheat, on which if it were 
designed for a crop, we should not advise the use of more than 
100 lbs., or 150 lbs. per acre. Dut if we wished to obtain a rich 
and luxuriant growth of buckwheat or other similar crop to 
turn under as a green manuring, a considerable larger quantity 
might be used to great advantage, since the design is to get the 
largest possible mass of vegetation, and no application will give 
it so quickly or so cheaply as Peruvian giumo. For light, sandy 
and barren lands, this mode of treatment can hardly be too 
strongly recommended. Once get them into good heart in this 
way, and tliey may be easily kept up and made productive. 

(Juano may be mixed with jKirlect safety with charcoal or 
with muck, or dry meadow mud, with salt, sand or stiff fine 
loam ; but ordinarily, except for top-dressing as indicated al)Ove, 
it is bettor to use it alone and thereby save considerable labor 
which is wholly unnecessary and useless. We do not believe it 
can be s[irea<l any more evenly by hand, in a compost than it can 
by itself alone. And even ior a top-dressing it is scarcely ne- 
cessary to compost it with anything if it is applied in Xovem- 
l)er or in March on the late snows, or in a rainy day. Still 
there is no particular oljcction to a mixture with any of the 
substances indicated above if any one chooses to take that course. 
But it should nevor, on any account, be mixed with quick lirao 



42 GUANO AS A TOP-DRESSING. 

or any other strong alkaline substance, nor should it be allowed 
to come in direct contact with the seed. 

We should not recommend its mixture with wood ashes 
either leached or unleached, because they always contain more 
or less alkaline substances, which might set free a part of the 
ammonia of the guano. Some would not mix it with plaster, be- 
cause of its liability to form an insoluble compound the action of 
which would be slow and proportionally less valuable. But if it is 
to be immediately applied in the hill where it will be at once sur- 
rounded and mixed with the soil, the objection to the use of ashes 
would be removed, since the loss which would otherwise follow, 
would be checked by the absorbing power of the soil. And 
many use plaster in a mixture with guano with success, but if 
the land needs plaster and is apparently benefited by it, we think 
it just as well to apply it by itself directly to the crops, and the 
guano by itself. Fine charcoal or the scrapings of coalpits, may 
always be used to advantage mixed with guano, and it will prove 
a valuable absorbent and retainer of the ammoniacal or volatile 
part of the guano. 

In sowing down to grass in September, we would put in the 
guano with the harrow the same as for winter wheat, say ten or 
twelve days before the grass seed was to be sown, or else wait till 
the seed had come up and then take a rainy day and sow it on as 
a top-dressing. 1 f we composted the guano with loam for this 
purpose we should want it to remain in the heap a few days 
till the whole mass was fully saturated with the guano, using 
only a part of the full quantity we intended to apply and reserv- 
ing the balance to be applied on the late spring snows. Guano, 
though it will destroy the germinative power of seeds placed in 
too close proximity to it, will not injure growing crops when 
sown broadcast on them, unless applied in enormous quantities, 
far greater than any one would think of applying as a manure. 

So much for top-dressing either grains or grasses. If now it is 
proposed to use it in the hill or the drill, on the corn or other 
crops, it has generally been thought best to mix it thoroughly, as 
before indicated, with loam, sand or other similar substance to 
dilute it. If this course is to be pursued, and the soil on which 
it is to be applied were light and sandy, we should mix the gua- 



To PRODUCE A RAPID (JROWTH. 43 

no, if at all, with stilT loam ; if the soil were heavy we would 
mix it with sand. 

ll is betlcr arul safer as ap^encral rule, to mix the ij^uano with 
the surface soil by harrowing it in than to confine it in the hill 
or the drill. 

The impression, whicli some have, that the cfTects of guano 
are not so lasting as other manures in the soil, has arisen chief- 
ly from those cases in which it was put in the hill, and not in- 
corj>orated with the great body of the soil. A very small quantity 
applied in holes, say three feet or more apart, has but little 
chance to become thoroughly mixed with the great mass of the soil- 
But where it is spread, either the whole or a part of it, and plow, 
ed or harrowed in, it becomes diffused and affects and improves 
the whole soil- 
But it is important sometimes, to obtain a quick and thrifty 
growth of the corn or other crops, and this may bo done by put- 
ting guano in the hill and so covering it up, or thoroughly mix- 
ing it with the soil, that it will not come in contact with the seed. 
Billings' corn planter will droj) it and cover it up an inch or 
more in depth and drop the corn upon that. But if this is not 
to l)e had it may be dropped l)y hand at the rate of a tablespoonfiil 
of guano, or if composted with five or six times its bulk of fine 
loam, a small handful, which should be covered u\) with the hoc 
not less than an inch or an inch and a half deep before dropjiing 
tiie corn upon it. 

Many disappointments have occurred in consequence of not 
covering it ileep enough to protect the seed. There is no fear 
that the roots will not find it soon enough, even if it is more 
than two inches deep, and the slight covering which it too often 
gets with the foot is not sulficient. The more it can be mixed 
and incorporated with the soil the better, and if half of the 
amount which it is designed to use is spread and harrowed in, 
and a smaller quantity, say not over l.")0 lbs. for corn, placed in 
the hill, it would doubtless be safer and more satisfactory. 

We would strongly advise the use of guano in connection 
with l)arn yard manures, on lands which are within a reas- 
onal)le distance from the barn. The use of guano as a valuable 
auxiliary to other manures has not been sufficiently considered. 



44 QUANTITY PER ACRE. 

Attention to the difference of effect between coarse and concen. 
trated manures as stated on the 14th and 15th pages will show 
the importance of the use of a variety of manures to produce the 
best results. Where it is practicable, therefore, we would use 
guano in connection with stable manures, and if it were gener- 
ally so used, we should very rarely hear of the occurrence of a 
failure charged either to the crop or the soil. 

Suppose, for instance, the farmer were intending to apply 
forty common cart loads of stable manure per acre for a crop of 
corn or potatoes, and that that were sufficient to manure the 
acre well. Let him spread twenty loads and plow it in and ap- 
ply 150 lbs. of Peruvian guano in the hill. The aggregate cost 
of manure and cultivation would be less, and the aggregate val- 
ue of the crop in quantity and quality greater than if the acre 
were manured with the forty cart loads of manure. For in a 
season like 1855, or especially like that of 1859, the crop would 
be from one to two weeks earlier in ripening, and escape the 
autumn frosts much more surely, while the number of bushels 
per acre would be greater. The stable manure would supply a 
sufficient amount of organic substances to the soil, and the gua- 
no the necessary constituents or the food of the plants. The state- 
ments of successful experiments on the preceding pages and all 
experience as well as scientific investigation, are sufficient to 
prove this beyond the probability of contradiction. The largest 
and most successful products of corn in New England, in 1859, 
were cultivated with guano in whole or in part, and there were 
comparatively few superior and first rate crops where it was not 
used to some extent. 

Three hundred pounds per acre is usually considered to be a 
very fair manuring with good Peruvian guano, and if several 
loads of barn-yard manure are spread and plowed in, 150 or 
200 lbs would be sufficient. This quantity of guano put in the 
hill would stimulate the early growth of the corn, or give it a 
rapid and thrifty start, while the manure which had been spread 
and plowed in, ought to become so far decomposed by August 
or September as to carry up the crops to maturity. It is not 
very safe to plant corn with all the manure spread broad-cast, 
and plowed in, unless the soil is very rich. It needs something 



THK MANUIli: FOU POTATOES. 45 

to pivo it a start, and unless it has it, it will linger along some- 
time without making much head-way. This slowness of growth 
may cause a lateness of ripening in the fall which will be fatal 
to the crop. For the benefit of the soil the manure should bo 
spread broad-cast and plowed in ; for the success of the crop a 
part of it ought to be put in the hill, and for this purpose guano 
is most excellent. 

For potatoes a somewhat similar course would be recommend- 
ed. Wc would not, with all the light we have as to the dele- 
terious effect of barii-yard manures on this crop, think of putting 
these manures in the hill and planting jiotatocs on them. Let 
the green or stable manures be spread and plowed in, then cross 
furrow and drop the guano in the hill and mix it or cover it 
over carefully with the soil, so as not to place the potatoes in 
immediate contact with the guano. A spoonful of plaster put 
around the potatoes before or at the first hoeing, will materially 
help their growth. 

For carrots, beets, mangold wurtzel, parsnips, and other tap- 
rooted plants which require a thoroughly pulverized soil, and 
on which the use of yard manure is injudicious on account of 
the liability to encourage the growth of weeds, we should say 
plow once very deep and then spread on 300 lbs. of guano be- 
fore cross-plowing and turn it in with the plow a few inches 
deep. Then wc would mix a guano compost, using ?ay 100 or 
1.50 lbs. per acre, after l)eing diluted beyond the possibility of 
injuring seed in contact with it, and apply it along the drills or 
by means of a drill-machine. For the smaller root crops^ espe- 
cially, the land should l)e perfectly clean and free from weeds, 
else the labor and cost of weeding will cat in largely upon the 
profits. 

For forcing beds, for starting early crops and like purposes, 
frequently practised by market and other gardeners, guano may 
be mixed directly with the manure by forming alternate layers 
as directed in the preparation of an ordinary guano compost, 
and then forking over thoroughly so as to get us complete a 
mixture as possible. This addition will give the common stable 
manures much greater stimulating power, and enable the gar- 
dener to get out his plants earlier than it would be possible in 



46 MIXED WITH OTHER MANURES. 

any other way. Guano is sometimes mixed directly in this 
way by the farmer in forking over his manure heaps in the 
spring, as lor instance where barn-yard composts have been 
hauled out the autumn previous and tipped up in heaps upon 
the field where it is intended to use them, and instances of very 
marked success in this mode of using it are at hand. But though 
it is vahiable mixed in this way for giving the manure much 
more power and quickness of action, we think it rather prefer- 
able to apply it as indicated on a preceding page, the manure 
by itself and the guano by itself, chiefly because it is a little less 
labor, and because the guano would naturally be subject to little 
more exposure and loss of ammonia in forking over with the 
other manures as many times as it would be necessary. 

For beans, pease, millet, &c. when cultivated as a field crop, 
we think it safer generally to spread broad-cast and harrow in. 
A very diluted guano compost might be used in the hills or 
drills with safety, perhaps, but when a sufficient quantity is 
spread evenly and incorporated with the soil in this way, the 
rains will diffuse it so well that there need be little fear that the 
fibrous roots of these crops will not find and feel the stimula- 
ting influence of the guano. 

For squashes, cabbages, cauliflowers, <fec., we think a good 
application, say 300 lbs. per acre, spread and harrowed in, or 
plowed in shallow in cross-plowing, and a diluted guano com- 
post used in the hill advisable. These crops will bear a good 
deal of forcing and it is of the greatest importance to give it to 
them. For such a compost, a mixture of ashes and loam may 
bo used with the guano, if it is to be covered up immediately 
after mixing. 

For onions we would apply guano at the rate of four or five 
hundred pounds per acre ; spread on after a deep thorough 
plowing and harrow it in. Onions require a rich, deep soil, 
though they grow and derive much of their nourishment near 
the surface. It is well known to onion growers that the use of 
a heavy dressing of stable manures will produce coarse grained 
onions, which are much less valuable in the market than those 
grown with a concentrated manure, or with a suitable mixture 
of a variety of manures. Any one conversant with the market, 



A PEW GENERAL RULES. 47 

knows the difference between what is called "coarse" and "fine," 
as applied to this root. 

For many garden plants, and especially for pot plants, a solu- 
tion of guano has been found exceedingly useful. It causes a 
strong and healthy growth and multiplies the roots as well 
as promotes a rapid growth of stalk. For this purpose it 
is well to have a cask of water at hand and apply the guano at 
the rate of about a pound to ten gallons of the water. It should 
bo stirred up occasionally, and applied frequently in small quan- 
tities by the watering pot. The cask should be kept covered up, 
and not allowed to stand exposed in a hot sun. A frequent ap- 
plication in this way will be found to give great brilliancy to 
the color of roses and other flowering plants. 

The mode of applying guano has so much to do with the re- 
sult that we venture an apparent repetition in stating a few 
general rules : 1. Guano, if stored, should be kept dry. 
2. Guano is best applied in damp, rainy weather. 3. Guano 
when applied to cultivated land ought to be immediately mixed 
with the soil by the plow or the harrow. 4. Mix it with tho 
surface soil rather than con6ne it in the hill. 5. If it be ap- 
plied in the hill, first mix it with five times its bulk of ashes, 
charcoal, salt, or cover it up carefully with soil before dropping 
the seed. 0. Guano ought not to be applied as a top-dressing 
later in spring than the first of May. 7. When applied to fall 
sown grains or grasses, half the quantity should be reserved till 
March. 8. Apply it only in quantities sufficient for the crops it 
is desired to produce. i<. (Juano should never come in contact 
with the seed 10. Buy of responsible and authorized dealers. 

The judgment of the farmer and gardener, aided by the above 
suggestions, and by his own experience, will enable him to make 
the application to any crop not mentioned above, and in circum- 
stances which have not been anticipated in these pages. 

The soils on which guano has the most marked and powerful 
effect are light and sandy, or what arc most frequently call- 
ed poor and worn out. On such soils there can be no question 
of the economy of its use, for by it good grain and clover crops 
can be obtained, and wherever a good clover crop can l^e made 



48 CANNOT INJURE THE SOIL. 

to grow, the soil can be brought up to a high state of productive- 
ness by judicious management. 

But though on these comparatively worthless soils it seems to 
have the most marked and decided effect, it may be applied with 
profit and advantage on any soil which can be economically cul- 
tivated with any crop, and for the reason which has been given 
on a preceding page, that it contains the largest amount of 
available food in readiness for plants, of any known substance 
used as a manure. 

Light sandy soils do not need the mechanical improvement 
which our common stable manures produce in heavier soils, and 
hence coarse manures are not so much needed on them as on 
clays. On the latter, the coarser manures are used to great ad- 
vantage as a means of correcting their physical texture, but as 
a direct and ready prepared food of plants guano is equally use- 
ful on them as on lighter soils. Hence, while it may always be 
used alone on the- latter class of soils, wliose physical texture, if 
modified at all, needs to be rendered more compact, on the form- 
er, or undrained clays or stiff loams we have recommended its 
use in connection with, and as an auxiliary to stable manures. 

Guano cannot injure or " burn up " the soil, as some pretend, 
if it is applied as indicated above, or indeed in any other way, 
unless it were used in enormous quantities which no one would 
think of applying to produce any ordinary crop. We know of 
one instance where it was applied at the rate of 4800 lbs. per 
acre to produce a rapid and luxuriant growth of young trees for 
a specific purpose. In that case alternate rows of carrots were 
sown and yielded at the rate of more than twenty one tons per 
acre. No perceptible injury was done to the land, nor is it 
probable that ten tons to the acre could in any way injure or 
" burn it up." 

The farmer may depend upon it and set it down as a general 
principle on which it is safe to act, that the wisest economy is 
perfectly consistent with a liberal outlay for manures, and that 
he who puts the most into the soil, if he does it with ordinary 
prudence, will be sure to get the most out of it. 



iiiiS tff 



PEHUfllM QOINO 



A constant supply from the Agents of the Peruvian Government. 






Every bag stamped with the Importers' names, 

BARRIL BROTHERS, (JOTernment Agents, 

on one side, and on the reverse side, the name of 

0. L.BAETLETT, AGENT, 

ISTo. 16 BPtO^A^ID STPLEET 

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IMPORTED DIRECT FROM THE 
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